The embodiments of the present invention relate generally to amphibious vehicles and in particular to amphibious excavating equipment. More particularly, the embodiments provide a tracked, self-propelled platform from which equipment can operate on land or floating in a body of water.
Amphibious vehicles, known as marsh buggies, were first developed over 50 years ago to support oil and gas exploration operations conducted in marshy or swampy terrain. Marsh buggies typically include a pair of pontoons connected to a center platform. The pontoons are usually surrounded by a cleated track system which is capable of engaging ground, water, or swamp land to propel the vehicle. The track system uses one or more endless chains surrounding the periphery of each pontoon. The endless chains, supporting the cleated tracks, are driven about the periphery of the pontoons, by a sprocket or other means, in order to provide propulsion to the vehicle. By varying the track speed around each pontoon, the vehicle can be advanced, turned, or reversed.
Marsh buggies are ideal for operation in wetlands, marshlands, and other low-lying areas because of the relatively low pressures exerted on the ground through the large, tracked pontoons. Therefore, marsh buggies will not sink into the soft soil in low-lying or submerged areas and have minimal environmental impact while traveling to and from a remote job site. Marsh buggies have been adapted to haul personnel and cargo as well as serve as the operating platform for various types of equipment, such as excavators, draglines, and backhoes.
Over the last several years, the environmental impact of operations in marshlands, wetlands, and other low-lying areas is of increasing concern. Many marshland and wetland areas are deteriorating and significant effort is being expended to preserve, protect, and restore these areas. Marsh buggies are currently being used in these restorations and preservation efforts. Marsh buggies are used to provide heavy earth-moving equipment to these low-lying, soft terrain areas for operations such as wetland restoration, crust management (de-watering), dredging, levee building, coastal erosion, and other environmental remediation operations.
Marsh buggies have proved useful in performing earth moving operations in soft-terrain and are often capable of floating in order to navigate small bodies of water. Although marsh buggies are often capable of moving through any terrain, these vehicles aren't designed to operate while floating in water deeper than their pontoons. Thus, marsh buggies are limited in performing earth-moving operations to dry land or relatively shallow water where their pontoons are resting on the ground.
When water depths preclude the use of marsh buggies, other equipment must be used. One such piece of equipment, facilitating operation in deeper water, is a spud barge. Spud barges are essentially floating platforms fitted with pilings that are extended into the bottom of the body of water on which the barge is floating. These pilings, known as spuds, fix the horizontal location of the barge during operations. Heavy equipment, which has been mounted to or placed on the barge, can be operated once the barge is fixed in location.
One drawback to spud barges is that the barge's access to land-locked bodies of water is limited. In other words, the barge has to be floated to the location in which it is to operate. For example, if dredging operations were needed in a lake that had no deep water access, the barge would have difficulty gaining access to the lake. Where no access is provided, it has been one common practice in low-lying, marshlands to have the spud barge dig a channel of sufficient depth to allow the barge to float to the work site. Not only does this technique add to the duration and complexity of the project, it also increases the environmental impact of the project.
Thus, there remains a need in the art for providing a self-propelled, amphibious vehicle capable of supporting operations on land or while floating. Therefore, the embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods and apparatus for providing versatile excavating systems that seek to overcome the limitations of the prior art.